Elder Delbert L. Stapley, Part Three: A George Eliot (Summary)

For Part One, Part Two, Part Four or Part Five in this series, pick a link and go for it. 

Elder Delbert L. Stapley's talk, "Honesty and Integrity" included another quote, our second so far in this conference from George Eliot:

The Quote

"George Eliot has said: “There is only one failure in life possible and that is not to be true to the best one knows.”"

 

But guess what?

George Eliot said a lot of things, and people did love to 'quote' her, but it seems she never said this. At least, I was unable to find where she said this.

It's widely attributed to George Eliot, but not to be found anywhere I looked in her works. 

I checked Middlemarch and Silas Marner and The Mill on the Floss - nothing.

A search of a collection of her essays proved fruitless. Even a collection of her letters showed nothing.

 

So we must focus in on the content of the quote instead, and ask ourselves, "Does this quote contain true principles, at least, even if the quote itself can't be located?"

I know I want to be true to the best that I know - experience has shown that to be, for me, the gospel of Jesus Christ, so in that aspect for me, the thought is true, regardless of authorship.

I may fail at other aspects of my life - heaven knows I encounter failure on a fairly regular basis. I even know I'm going to fail at living the principles of the gospel perfectly.

But that is why God sent His Son, Jesus Christ - to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. In gratitude for His holy gift, I do the best I can to live the gospel, to be kind to everyone I know, to serve Him the way He would like to be served, to keep His commandments.

Not doing that would truly be failure, yes.

So check this off as another quote which, though true in content, is unattributable to George Eliot. It's more of a summary of something the author said at some time that grew into legend that few questioned...until now.

Yes, I will question these quotes, and with any luck, I will find them! 

 

 

Elder Delbert L. Stapley, Part Two - Will the Real Thomas Carlyle Please Stand Up?

 For Part One, Part Three, Part Four or Part Five in this series, pick a link and go for it. 

This talk was my kind of talk - full of classic references that are now part of our scriptural canon. Big thanks to Elder Delbert L. Stapley, and his talk, "Honesty and Integrity"., coming up near the end of the April 1971 General Conference.

The Quote 

"Carlyle said: “Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one rascal less in the world.”"

 

I used to say this to myself all the time, for many years. Where did this quote come from?

 

The Secular Prophet, Paraphrased

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish writer of letters during Victorian times. Smart guy - even invented a form of math called the Carlyle circle. No idea what that is, but anyone who invents a new form of math has got brains, for sure.

Brains he did NOT pass on to his eight cousin seven times removed on my mother's side...but that's okay. I'll take another Scottish link any day.

Also, he never actually said this quote, but he sort of said things like it.

Due to the quote anthologies of the early 20th century, things notable people said in the past were sometimes said a certain way, when they never really said that thing, and that's what people remembered them saying going forward. Best not to feel too smug about it - quote anthologies back then, Internet today. Same bad memory, different modality. 

After checking several of his most prominent works - Sartor Resartus, Past and Present, and some of his essays and letters - but I couldn't find a similar quote in any of these works, but there was some similar feeling about work and the importance of it. It's a quote he certainly could have said, based on other things he said, but it appears he didn't actually say it.

So is my life based on a lie? Is it not true because it's a made-up quote?

Although it truly doesn't seem to belong to Thomas Carlyle, the quote speaks to repentance, hard work, honesty, and building up good in the word, one life at a time, all of which I believe are true principles. Though it's better to quote quotes that people actually said, I do believe that what is said in the quote itself is centered around truth.And the false quote endures for that reason.

Complicated? Certainly. 

Fascinating? Absolutely.  

And with that, I leave you with a real quote that runs in a similar vein by Carlyle, which I find equally useful to the above quote. Almost more so, because he actually said it in his book, On Heroes and Hero Worship:

"...my advice is, 

that you endeavour to be honestly rich, or contentedly poor; 

but be sure your riches be justly got; 

for it is well said by Caussin, 

"He that loses his conscience, has nothing left that is worth the keeping."